Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/121

 Rh the same fault as Miss Hodgetts. Indeed, she admits that she only obtained the stories which are her contribution to the volume from the old women in the bazaars, through her native servants—of what town she carefully refrains from telling us. It is evident that the collection would have been of little value had it not been for Pandit Natêsa Sástrî's help; and Mrs. Kingscote has done wisely in retaining Mr. Clouston's long and important note on "The King and his Four Ministers" (here given under the name of "The Lost Camel and other Tales"), as well as the smaller notes by Mr. Clouston and Captain Temple to Pandit Sástrî's tales. The remaining notes are presumably to be attributed to Mrs. Kingscote herself They are short and to the point. Altogether, folk-lore students will not regret to have this supplement to the folk-lore of Southern India already published by Pandit Sastri, though it is much to be regretted that we are not even told to which of the numerous populations of that land we are indebted for the various tales.

English Fairy Tales is the first form of the first instalment of Mr. Jacobs' promised collection of English folk-tales, and the most delightful book of fairy tales, taking form and contents together, ever presented to children. Of its abundant popularity among the public to which it is specially addressed, nobody who has made the experiment will doubt. Treating it from a scientific point of view, it may be said to consist of forty-three tales, roughly divisible into twenty mdrchen, four sagas, seven drolls, three cumulative tales, two beast tales, and seven nonsense tales, tales working up to a climax of comic grimace, and so forth, classes for which specific names have yet to be found. One of these, "The Three Bears," Mr. Jacobs says, is of literary origin, having been invented by Southey. This statement requires some qualification. The likeness of the plot to a portion of the tale of "Little Snow-white", and the identity of some of the phrases, render it probable that the most that can be attributed to Southey is the giving of